After reading the thread over on HB about pre-packaged premium Italian espresso blends, I'm overcome with the urge to try the Essse Masini Caffe blend. 1st-Line sells it, but the shipping cost on a single bag makes it pricey enough for me to gulp twice. Shipping, however, is free on a case of 6 bags. Any chance that there are 5 other LA residents interested enough to split a case?

From the thread on HB, I get the impression that none of these bags have roast dates on them. Jim Shulman and others seem to be saying that, with those particular blends, the rule of 15s may not strictly apply, and that the Italian roasters approach to their craft, especially to how they roast the robusta component, almost requires the blend to be what we might think of as "stale." This is one of the reasons why I'm interested in picking up a kilo bag to check out.

Still, I'll drop Jim Piccinich a line and ask him, all the same.

It was actually the link from the previously mentioned thread to this one that got me interested. I trust Jim Shulman as a taster, and this does have me intrigued.

So Jim Piccinich says that the bags don't have a "roasted on" date per se, but there's a "Packaged on" date on the carton (according to the Essse website, it's also on the "upper gilded band" of the bag), and Jim gets a new fresh shipment from Essse monthly. I can make some room in the freezer, so I'm willing to speak for 2 of the 6 bags in a case if we can't find 5 other adventurous 'spro heads in L.A. geekdom.

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